ORCASat Mission

The ORCASat (Optical Reference Calibration Satellite) Mission is a small satellite produced by students and faculty at the University of Victoria, along with the help of other volunteers. The satellite contains two laser light sources to demonstrate the capabilities of adaptive optics (AO) in calibrating ground-based telescopes to produce high resolution images of astronomical targets. The ORCASat Team is collaborating with NASA to conduct data analysis on the images produced by ORCASat since its launch from the ISS on Dec. 29th, 2022. By performing photometry on the collected data, we can determine just how powerful this technology is. Atmospheric noise alters the apparent magnitude of stars as they are seen on Earth, meaning that the resolution with which one can study celestial objects is reduced. NASA's and the University of Victoria's goal is to understand the accuracy of the star brightnesses measured with respect to the reference light sources of the satellite and to determine just how well atmospheric noise was corrected for by using AO. The results from ORCASat demonstrate the potential that the ORCAS mission has to dramatically increase resolution and the accuracy in absolute brightness measurements of astronomical objects from the ground.

You can find more information surrounding the ORCASat project here: https://www.orcasat.ca/